EMAIL REPUTATION MANAGEMENT:

WARMING A DEDICATED IP

Email deliverability is an ever-evolving challenge, but one way to improve your deliverability rates is to use a dedicated IP. Internet Services Providers (ISPs) and global receivers identify senders by your IP and the reputation tied to your IP. This short guide explains how to properly warm your dedicated IP.

What Warming Means

Dedicated IP warming is the process of preparing a new IP for full-capacity sending. It involves a ramp-up period in which email volume is gradually increased over the course of several weeks until the sender’s full volume is handled by the IP. During which time, you are also establishing a reputation as a sender with the ISPs.

How Do You Warm the IP?

The most common method to warm an IP is through the aforementioned volume rampup. Below shows two approaches to properly ramping up your new dedicated IP. In both scenarios, the volume ramp up will be complete when you commence sending your normal weekly or daily volume at the amounts you typically send. Please note: Establishing your reputation with ISPs is always 30 days regardless of volume ramp-up.

Why Warm the IP?

When you get a brand new IP, there is no reputation established for it, which means you must first build it – and then continue to maintain it. If an ISP and receiving servers have never received messages from an IP before, they are going to pay special attention to what is coming from it. If the receiver sees a lot of email come from the IP right from the start with no previous history, it is easy for the message to be flagged as unsolicited email. That means the sender will see more emails going to the spam folder – or getting blocked all together. In order to avoid being flagged, a warming process is necessary. By sending a small number of messages off the dedicated IP, and increasing them over time, receivers can get used to seeing mail come off of it and review engagement with the sender’s messages. Over the period of the warming the IP a reputation is built.